5 centuries subjugated to Ottoman rule and, more lately, 4 decades locked awfully forcefully behind the Iron Curtain turned Bulgaria into a distant, enigmatic country in the eyes of a lot of the rest of the planet. Pictures of inexpensive wine downed at student house parties, budget ski vacations and umbrella-wielding Cold War killers were once among the popular stereotypes, but Bulgaria today is a hugely different country from what it was even ten years back.

Advert For most foreign holidaymakers, Bulgaria’s main lure is its long, sandy Black Sea Coast which still boasts swaths of surprising beaches and quaint bays regardless of the expansive building work but there’s so very much more to this country, and such a lot of it is still principally untouched and unvisited by overseas holiday makers.

Networks of carefully maintained hiking trails and horse-riding routes let you discover Bulgaria’s lush mountainous and forested landscapes, particularly round the Rila and Pirin Mountains, inhabited by bears, lynx, rare birds and other categories of wildlife now becoming infrequent some place else in Europe. Getting round the country is straightforward, with inexpensive and efficient public transport to ferry you between the towns and into the remoter, rustic corners, where the standard, slow speed of life continues much as it has done for centuries. Here you will come across multicolored monasteries, crammed with great icons and observed over by bushy-bearded clergymen, and impossibly pretty timber-framed towns with smoke curling lazily over the stone-tiled roofs and mules complaining in the distance, where headscarfed old women and their curious grandchildren still stare in awe at the appearance of outsiders.

The cities, too, are usually overlooked highlights, from dynamic, cosmopolitan Sofia with its beautiful parks, companionable uncovered bars and interesting museums, to the nation’s Revival architectural treasures and Roman remains of Plovdiv, and the young maritime cockiness of Varna.